Mozambique: Emergency action should be included in annual plans

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Mozambique: Emergency action should be included in annual plans

1:02 CAT | 29 Feb 2020

Photo: Noticias

Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario on Thursday, in the central city of Beira, recommended that the provincial directorates in Sofala province should include emergency actions in their annual plans, so as to allow intervention in good time in the event of any natural disaster.

Addressing an extraordinary meeting of the Sofala Provincial Executive Council, which was discussing the current emergency situation in the province, Rosario warned that natural disasters “have come to stay”, and so it is imperative that each provincial directorate include in its annual plans activities to deal with emergencies so that they can respond to disaster in good time, rather than leaving everything up to the relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC).

“The INGC appears when disasters occur or to prevent them”, he said. “When the disaster occurs, the INGC intervenes, for example, to prevent the loss of human life”. But each of the directorates, Rosario stressed, should take responsibility for the subsequent actions.

“If the emergency has come to stay, the provincial directorates should incorporate the emergency into their annual work plans”, the Prime Minister insisted. This was the case, for example, with the directorates of public works, of education and of health.

As for the resettlement of people affected by natural disasters, Rosario stressed this must be done within a perspective of development – that is, people must be resettled with all the conditions for them to feel attracted to the resettlement village and thus to stay there.

“You cannot resettle people without schools, without roads, without seeds for production”, he said. “When that happens people go back to the high risk areas, and do what we don’t want them to do”.

He stressed the importance of actively involving the people affected in post-disaster recovery and reconstruction, because “we don’t want people to depend forever on the INGC”.

Before meeting with the Provincial Executive Council, Rosario visited the Mandruzi resettlement centre in Dondo district. Here he found over 1,300 households who had been displaced by Cyclone Idai, which struck Sofala in March 2019.

They are still living in tents, or in precarious huts. They asked the government to provide them with brick houses and to improve their water supply.

The Prime Minister promised to ensure that more standpipes are built to guarantee the Mandruzi water supply.

As for brick houses, “the solution is for the government, our partners and you to unite our efforts and find the best way of improving you lives”, he said.

“Climate change has come to stay”, he added, “and it is up to us to know how to live with it by building resilient infrastructures”.

Source: AIM